BLACK STACK 0.30.0

The switchboard is answering. A dead operator has opened a stall at the root gate.

THE BONE EXCHANGE, a new permanent vendor

• Defeat your first Act 1 Archon and Mr Bones opens shop between breaches, selling recovered schematics, scripts, and hardware.
• License ladder: every deeper Archon you fell extends his catalog. Commons at Act 1, scripts at Act 2, elixirs at Act 3, uncommon schematics at Act 4, relic hardware at Act 5, the full rare pool at Act 6. Complete the Mandate to unseal the DIVINE shelf.
• Fresh stock arrives whenever an Archon falls. Limited rerolls per stock, one purchase each, and a free-purchase voucher for your first completed ascent.
• Hover any item for the full card frame or hardware dossier before you commit.

CONTRACTS: 36 jobs across 6 tiers

• The operator's contract board posts offers alongside the shop. His book holds up to three signed contracts, and one rides with you per breach, chosen at setup.
• Kill quotas, casino runs, jackpot extractions, discipline challenges, and more. Bigger jobs bank progress across runs, so nothing is lost between attempts.
• Your active contract lives on the route atlas with live progress, your targets are marked in combat, and extraction and casino screens remind you what's at stake.
• Completed contracts pay out automatically the moment the run ends. Call at the Exchange afterward and the operator settles up in person.

CELEBRATIONS

• Completing your first full ascent now gets the ceremony it deserved: a root-gate celebration starring the identity that carried the run, listing everything your victory unlocked. Archon Prime's next-victory choice, the Machine God audience, the Bone Exchange rare license, and more.
• Unlocking the Bone Exchange gets its own notice from Mr Bones himself.

CLEARER LANGUAGE, EVERY LANGUAGE

• The tutorial and the most jargon-heavy screens were rewritten in plain language across all 30 localizations. Thanks to Stilgar for the honest review that drove this.
• Event outcomes no longer dump walls of text. Every choice shows a clean preview, and results list exactly what happened. Random-upgrade events now show you exactly which card changed, with the card itself. Thanks to @reaper10849 for both reports.

UX & QUALITY

• Combat log redesigned: no more hover popups. Click any entry to pin a clean receipt with art, source, and target.
• Run recaps, event outcomes, and checkpoint manifests now show recovered cards and gear as hoverable tokens that raise the full card.
• Any key, mouse click, or gamepad button skips cutscenes, and holding any button skips the credits. Thanks to SnowShank for the report.
• Blackjack payout table added to the Wager Den, alongside the roulette one. Odds visibility raised by @reaper10849.
• Fixes: tutorial exit softlock, deck costs showing decimals (both reported by @reaper10849), oversized panels in some languages, and a rare crash at the end of a run.

COMMUNITY CREDITS

BLACK STACK gets better because you tell us where it hurts. This patch exists in large part thanks to:

• Stilgar: tutorial and language overhaul feedback (Steam review)
• SnowShank: cutscene/FMV skip with mouse and any button (Steam discussion)
• @reaper10849: Wager Den odds visibility, workbench cost decimals, tutorial exit softlock, event text walls, and random-upgrade reward clarity

Found something broken, confusing, or just annoying? Post it in the discussions. You might end up in the next one of these.

The Stack remembers you now. See you at the root gate.

— Blackglass Assembly